A positive mind is preferable to a negative mind because it is easier to live with, more functional, more close to the Truth, and much easier to detach from. So any emotional or psychological healing work that allows the mind to be more positive is a step toward freedom from the mind altogether, which is the goal of spiritual practices and the result of spiritual awakening. Most people live in a very negative mental world that produces much suffering for themselves and others, and this isn’t necessary. When this negativity can be ignored, we are freed from this suffering. The problem is that a negative mind is difficult to ignore and detach from because negative thoughts produce fear and other unpleasant emotions, and we get involved with trying to get rid of these feelings or avoid what we fear. When fear, in particular, is stirred up, we believe we need to do something about it. We believe our fears are meaningful and must be listened to, which isn’t true, but we are programmed to believe this.

All of these thoughts and actions in service to our feelings keep us out of the present moment and from discovering what Essence might be naturally moving us to do. If we are busy with fear or other emotions, our attention and energy isn’t available for what is coming out of the moment. What is life calling you to do now? What is it showing to you now? How is it moving you? You won’t know if you are caught up in your emotions. Negative thoughts and feelings cause the egoic mind to be very compelling and difficult to ignore. That’s where positive thinking comes in: Positive thoughts can be used to counteract negative thoughts, and this can help free us from a negative mind. When positive thoughts are used that way, they can be healing, and healing supports our ability to be in the moment and experience the peace and joy that is available there.

However, the subject of positive thinking is complicated by the fact that some positive thinking is definitely ego-based. Some positive thoughts are just more of the ego’s stories or lies and simply reflect its fantasies and desires and, therefore, only continue to keep us out of the present moment and in its unreal, made-up world, rather than free us from it. A lot of the thoughts that attempt to “manifest your reality” are of this nature. They are imagining a future the ego wants and trying to make that happen. That’s just what egos do. Egos also imagine negative futures, and those teaching manifesting are just teaching people to try to create a more positive one. These positive thoughts and imaginations may be useful if they are aligned with Essence’s intentions for your life. But if they aren’t, they just cause more suffering because you still won’t get what you want—and now you’ll blame yourself for it. The idea that we manifest our reality is leaving a lot of people feeling bad about themselves. They believe that they should be able to create the reality they (the ego) want. But—guess what—nobody consistently succeeds at that because there is something much bigger than your ego here, and it is orchestrating your life and everyone else’s for the wellbeing of the Whole, and not necessarily catering to your ego’s particular desires and preferences. Although your will is a factor in creating life and certainly in your experience of life, your will doesn’t determine what happens (although the ego would like to think so).

Some people have succeeded at manifesting something they wanted because it was Essence’s intention to give it to them anyway. They thought they created it with their will, but Essence created it or allowed it. Sometimes our negative thinking interferes with receiving the opportunities or abundance that Essence intends for us, and when that is the case, positive thinking can help remove the blocks to receiving that. However, what isn’t acknowledged by those teaching manifesting is that sometimes limitation is the experience Essence intends for us for the time being because a great deal can be learned from it. If that is the case, all the positive thinking in the world won’t bring abundance until Essence is ready to allow that. This Intelligence that we are is very wise in bringing us exactly the experience we need to evolve us, that is, to make us more wise and loving.

Another problem with positive thinking is that it may be used to deny feelings. If sadness is present, for instance, it isn’t helpful to declare “I’m happy.” Positive thoughts can be used to neutralize the negative thought that created the feeling, but if negative feelings are present, then being present to them is what is needed. Being present means allowing whatever is. If a negative feeling is there, you say okay to it and let yourself experience it (without feeding it with more negative thoughts). Just let it be there and see what you can discover about it. Being present to a feeling with compassion and acceptance will reveal the negative belief that caused it, and once you see that, that is often enough to release or dissolve the feeling. At that point, bringing in a positive thought to neutralize the negative one might be helpful. For instance, if you discover that you are feeling sad because you are believing the thought “I will never be loved,” you can counteract that with the truth (which happens to be positive): Love is abundant in the universe and in me. Love is available to me now and in every moment when I choose to recognize it and express it.

The kind of positive thoughts that are most helpful are those that reflect Essence’s viewpoint, or Truth, which is essentially that life is good, life is trustworthy, and you are divinely loved and treasured, as is all of life, and you are having exactly the experience you need for now. All is well and in good hands. Rest, allow, love, and be.

Gina Lake's view on positive thinking is wonderful; however, I can feel the hesitancy. It is almost as if she is afraid she'll lose the reader. I suppose it's because the LOA, positivity, the call for optimism, affirmations and similar have become an unassailable part of the current spiritual psyche. The emotions around the rightness or wrongness of LOA and positivity are very similar to those around religious fervor.

The problem is that these practices are really centered on denial. Even when we can get away from the unabashed materialism of the LOA, the problem is that the LOA and similar practices are based on focusing on the positive, which can only be done by denying and suppressing what we consider the negative. The suppressed negative does not go away; it, in fact, festers, and this is why the LOA and positive thinking do not work for most people. True transformation happens when we can completely accept what is, and what we are, without judging it positive or negative.

I disagree, when it is taken with acceptance, we are not denying, we are just being, just as when we let a useless thought pass on by like a cloud in the sky. When I hear all the stuff that I intuit as a sales pitch (usually based on fear) and know I am not interested in the "product" such as all of the fear fostering "news" such as EEE (equine encephalitis) mosquitoes that might bite ya so you shouldn't go out at night, or the financial "downturn," the swine flu, not to mention the avian flu, and much of what the medical industry is selling I chose not to "buy" because, firstly it's based on fear of death - and that's something we all will experience - and just like any thought that might pass through this brain, I question it and know most of it is simply hooey. I don't call that denial or suppression; it's acceptance with discernment.

In another conversation there was talk about an ET quote about that which you resist grows stronger - but when you simply choose to let things that don't resonate with you pass, rather than giving it attention, you are opening up to allowing. I do strongly feel that things we let "stick" such as those "bad" things, then we are indeed, not simply allowing them but inviting them - attracting them. Hence why, positive thinking while allowing and accepting is not denying, but being in a place that resonates with peace and well being.

I disagree, when it is taken with acceptance, we are not denying, we are just being...
In another conversation there was talk about an ET quote about that which you resist grows stronger - but when you simply choose to let things that don't resonate with you pass, rather than giving it attention, you are opening up to allowing. I do strongly feel that things we let "stick" such as those "bad" things, then we are indeed, not simply allowing them but inviting them - attracting them. Hence why, positive thinking while allowing and accepting is not denying, but being in a place that resonates with peace and well being.

"Taken with acceptance" is clearly not suppressing. We agree on that.

Conventionally, positive thinking and the like are not presented as acceptance or allowance or letting it float by.

Gina Lake's essay is eloquent. This is a difficult topic because many spiritual minds are reluctant to let go of this. She first points out that positive is good, because it "is easier to live with, more functional, more close to the Truth, and much easier to detach from." The last isn't true, but this is an important sentence. Positive thinking is close to the Truth, but doesn't quite make it. It's a good opening, so as not to lose the believers. But she quickly turns it around. Our servitude to positive thinking is still servitude; it is not freedom. These positive thoughts of "stick", "attracting", "inviting" are still thoughts--no different from the emotional fear which keeps us from Awareness. And, "positive thinking is definitely ego-based." How can it be otherwise? The ego is pretty good at negative thinking too, so the proponents are just telling us to prefer one type of thinking over another. Which might be wonderful if we could sustainably do that. But we can't, because there is a lot of violence in this judgment. I know my own mind can only do positive thinking by brutish pretense. And really, is it hard to see that positive thinking often denies feelings?

Why don't people consistently succeed with positive thinking? It could be that the LOA and positive thinking is a bunch of crap. That's a reasonable theory. It doesn't go with my experience though. I experience it the same way as Gina Lake, "because there is something much bigger than your ego here."

"The kind of positive thoughts that are most helpful are those that reflect Essence’s viewpoint." In pure awareness, without the noise of the ego, without the violence of judgment, true inspiration rises. When fear is released, there is only love. When we learn to trust intuition--not intellect--it is unfailing. What can be more positive?

People want both the Tollist/advaita view of allowing without judging, so we can be the awareness that we already are, but at the same time, somehow hold on to "beautiful" ideas. And so the closing is excellent: "Rest, allow, love, and be."

A positive mind is preferable to a negative mind because it is easier to live with, more functional, more close to the Truth, and much easier to detach from. So any emotional or psychological healing work that allows the mind to be more positive is a step toward freedom from the mind altogether, which is the goal of spiritual practices and the result of spiritual awakening.

with this from Jac O'Keeffe:

Every person is lovable and capable, as these qualities are not necessarily earned or accumulated. ...beling lovable and capable are human expressions of your essential nature. You can operate from that deeper part of you -- knowing and accepting your human nature....[Before awakening] you are asked to change your mind about the impact that your past experiences now have on you...The advantage to this step is that it allows you to unplug from your mind, in self-acceptance, so you can focus attention on the tricks of your mind and see what lives beyond it, instead of being victim to the concepts it presents...People with high self-esteem generally move forward and accept these ideas quickly.

If Gina refers to positive thinking about yourself, she and Jac agree. Jac's point is that people with grinding low self-esteem haved a strong belief that they cannot change. Adya also refers to a minimum level of self-esteem for spiritual evolution.

Pollyanna-ish and rigid positive thinking, to the extent that it is artificial is a set of beliefs not based in reality. Jac asserts that all people are capable and lovable, because their essence is in Self, and that owning those natural credentials is valuable.

Namaste, Andy

A person is not a thing or a process, but an opening through which the universe manifests. - Martin Heidegger
There is not past, no future; everything flows in an eternal present. - James Joyce

Every person is lovable and capable, as these qualities are not necessarily earned or accumulated. ...beling lovable and capable are human expressions of your essential nature. You can operate from that deeper part of you -- knowing and accepting your human nature....[Before awakening] you are asked to change your mind about the impact that your past experiences now have on you...The advantage to this step is that it allows you to unplug from your mind, in self-acceptance, so you can focus attention on the tricks of your mind and see what lives beyond it, instead of being victim to the concepts it presents...People with high self-esteem generally move forward and accept these ideas quickly.